Archive for
March 30th, 2006
Stories
Power - from youth to the sun - in Nigerian blogs this week
We'll start with a pressing issue in Nigeria,- politics and governance, Mutiu in a post titled: “Youth as a Tool of Positive Change” wants Nigerian youths to form political pressure groups:
“ Nigerian youth in their different communities can form political pressure groups, which will ensure the proper governance at the local government levels, performance of their representatives at the state houses of assemblies and federal legislature’s arms. These groups can mandate themselves to make it a point of duty to meet with the political office holders to deliver the demands of the masses to them and vice-versa…”
“NTA [Nigerian Television Authority] Maximalism” is one of the social commentary on Naija Blog . In this post, Jeremy states:
“If boredom should strike one while in Nigeria, there is always the option to turn to NTA. The news is a constant source of mirth and hilarity, if one knows how to find it. If it is not for the extravagancies of costume (see the fine example of regal agbadahood to the left [picture on Naijablog site]), then one can readily admire the extravagancies of the language. The English spoken on NTA is a uniquely distinct dialect of the language. Its provenance is 100% organic colonial: a sort of Africanised Etonian twang which results in weirdly contorted somewhat nasal locutions and odd syllabilic emphases.”
Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere
Mohsen Al-Awaji was freed after 11 days of detention, and Aya thinks this action by the government is a tangible lesson for Saudis: “Don’t you dare to criticize the government because we are capable, at any time, of stripping you from your freedom and dignity.” Riyadhwai seemed happy about the release of Al-Awaji, but he disagreed with some opinions Al-Awaji spoke of during a talk show on a Kuwaiti TV channel before his detention. The topic discussed was women's driving, and Al-Awaji has an opposing position on this matter. Riyadhawi thinks Al-Awaji has insulted the Saudi society (Arabic) when he described Saudi youth as “sexually hysteric,” and that he made a huge mistake by such generalization.
Prometheus posts (Arabic) on the story of Abdul-Rahman, the Afghani man who converted to Christianity, and he thinks no one is hurting Islam than Muslims themselves. “Islam has nothing to do with what going on here. Koran is very clear on that there is ‘no compulsion in religion,' and to believe or not is a matter of personal freedom,” he wrote. Another topic of interest to him was the new statistics which recently reported that Al Arabiya news channel has surpassed their competitors Al Jazeera in the percentage of viewership in Saudi Arabia. “There is a difference between covering news professionally and neutrally, which is what Al Arabiya does, and “making” the news and shaping them to promote a certain political or partisan ideology. And this exactly what Al Jazeera does,” he added (Arabic).
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
This week bloggers in Iraq are saying the same thing in different ways - the security situation is becoming unbearable. Also, in my bag today, a winning blogger gets another award; Chikitita negotiates Iraqi bureaucracy - Lara Croft-style; Meemo has a party; Caeser has a chance meeting with a girl with Down's Syndrome and there are plenty of pontificating pundits.
First I am saddened again to send condolences to fellow blogger Al-Baghdadi for the loss of his elder brother in tragic circumstances. The loss is worse as last June his youngest brother was murdered by kidnappers. He wrote to Fayrouz about what happened:
“I really regret and sorry to tell with all the pain in the world squeezing my heart, that I had lost my older brother S., age 52, a week ago in Baghdad… He was kidnapped from outside his house..A day after they contacted the family asking for a ransom, we tried our utmost to collect and pay whatever they may ask. But we failed. Three days later his body was found at the Baghdad morgue, savagely tortured and killed in a way out of any humanity..
(more…)
Links for Thu, 2006-03
Rob Mercatante, usually based in Guatemala, just got back from a trip to El Salvador. Here are his reflections on dollarization and donuts.
Eduardo Ávila is covering a developing story at Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba, where workers of the airline Lloyd Aereo Boliviano are demanding that the indebted airline be nationalized. Writing from Cochabamba, Jim Shultz describes LAB as “one more lab rat in that great IMF-induced economic experiment of privatizing all of Bolivia's state-owned industries,” which took place during the mid-90's.
Next to the runway this morning, I asked Oscar Olivera who, as head of the Cochabamba Factory Workers Union, is supporting the LAB workers, “Is it fair to say that Evo is now tear gassing his friends?” Weary from a week-long hunger strike and having been hit this morning by police, Oscar told me, “Evo is tear gassing his brothers.”
Later, Shultz adds that he thinks that the prospect of nationalizing LAB “is full of problems.”
unaRadio is an online radio station based in Argentina which describes itself as “a free medium to distribute the work of independent artists in Spanish and other languages.” You can listen to it in any media player by clicking here.
Bar Deportes lists the top thirty sports blogs according to Alexa (ES). They nearly all focus on football.
Luke Distelhorst writes about the case of a journalist in Mongolia being taken to court for slander by the country's president and says that the country would greatly benefit from more skilled investigative journalists and greater access to government documents.
Betsy, author of Stanmenistan, writes about Kazakh weddings.
Raffi K. of Life in Armenia writes about tensions in Georgia between ethnic Georgians and ethnic Armenians.
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